Unexpected Meetings
by Late For The Sky
Summary: Nikola Tesla, /the/ Nikola Tesla, was right here, in /his/ lab. Dave couldn't believe it. Crossover between "Sanctuary" and "Sorcerer's Apprentice, 2010."


Dave wasn't expecting anyone besides Balthazar to be down in his lab-slash-training room, so when he clattered down the stairs and saw a strange man looking _far_ too closely at one of his Tesla coils, he came to a surprised halt. The stranger wore a superbly tailored three-piece suit that looked like it would cost far more than Dave would have made in a month doing assistant teaching, and his shoes were polished to a dull shine. It took Dave a second to realize that the shoes the man was wearing were almost identical to those he and Balthazar wore, though of far higher quality. Balthazar was sitting nearby, reading something in the Encantus.

'Uh, Balthazar? Who- Who's this?' Dave asked, finishing his descent down the stairs. 'And why is he- Hey, careful! That's- That's highly sensitive equipment, and you can't just-'

The man looked up from the access panel he'd just opened at the middle of the coil he'd been looking at, one sleek eyebrow rising in what seemed to be vague amusement.

'This, my tardy apprentice, is an old friend of mine,' Balthazar replied, looking up from the Encantus. 'Don't worry; he won't mess up your experiment.'

'It might actually run better once I'm through with it,' the stranger said with a smug smile. 'You've got an interesting way of laying out your wiring, mini-Merlin.'

Dave blinked, astonished.

'"Mini-Merlin"? Really, Nikola, you've got to start coming up with better nicknames than that. What would Helen think?' Balthazar asked, a wicked grin forming on his face as he marked his place in the Encantus before closing it with a dull thud. Nikola rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he turned back to the Tesla coil he was now wrist-deep in.

'Helen doesn't care about my nicknames,' he said. 'So long as I don't give her one, that is. Which I wouldn't _dream_ of doing, of course.'

'Of course not.'

'Would someone _please_ explain what's going on here?' Dave pleaded, his voice going slightly higher than normal on the word "please."

Nikola sighed and stopped fiddling around with the Tesla coil. 'You're impatient, you know that?' He turned to Balthazar. 'You're _sure_ he's the Prime Merlinian?'

'He's the one the ring chose,' Balthazar said, getting to his feet. 'Dave, you might want to sit down for this.'

'What? Why? He's not going to turn me into a duck or something, is he?' Dave asked, looking at Nikola suspiciously. Nikola smirked, a slight laugh escaping him as he did so.

'A duck? Not my style. Besides, it'd probably be a pigeon if I was going to turn you into a bird,' he informed Dave. 'Which I'm not going to do, by the way.'

'Right. Dave, _sit_,' Balthazar commanded, bringing one hand down in a sharp gesture. Dave immediately took a seat on a nearby chair, unable to resist the magically-enhanced demand.

'Oh, that is _so_ not fair,' he complained.

'A lot of things in life aren't fair, Dave. You should know this by now. Care to introduce yourself properly, Nikola?' Balthazar asked. Nikola grinned.

'With pleasure.' He cleared his throat and then sketched a small bow before straightening back up. 'I,' he said, 'am Doctor Nikola Tesla: genius, scientist, vampire, and Merlinian sorcerer of the 234th degree. It is a pleasure to finally meet Merlin's heir.' Nikola shot a quick glance at Balthazar. 'Though I've got to say, I expected someone a little more...' He made a complicated motion with his left hand (upon which he wore a sleek silver ring with a small sapphire stone on it), to which Balthazar shrugged, as if to say _eh, what can you do? He wasn't _my _choice._

Dave, meanwhile, was sitting dumbstruck on his chair, staring wide-eyed at Nikola. Nikola merely shrugged and turned back to the coil he'd been looking at earlier. 'Feel free to ask any questions once your brain starts working again. I'm going to be here for a while,' Nikola said idly to Dave as he began to work. Dave blinked, bemused. Nikola Tesla, _the_ Nikola Tesla, was here in his lab? That was just-

'How are you alive?' he blurted out suddenly. 'You died in, like, 1943. Unless-' Dave glanced over at Balthazar. 'Are you under the same kind of spell as Balthazar? 'Cause if you were, it'd explain a lot of things, and-'

'No, I'm not ensorcelled,' Nikola replied, looking up from his work. He shook his head. 'You weren't listening when I introduced myself, were you?'

'What?'

'Vampire. Ring a bell? Besides, the reports of my death were... doctored, I suppose you could say. Oh, sure, they found a body in the hotel room I was staying at, but thanks to a few illusions and the timely intervention of an old friend, I managed to slip away into relative obscurity.' Nikola paused, and then shook his head. 'Funny how that turns out, isn't it, Balthazar? Both of us rather prominent in our own times, and then our stories get reduced to fairy tales and small paragraphs in the history books.'

Balthazar shrugged. 'It doesn't really matter to me,' he said. 'Now, I didn't invite you here to reminisce about days gone past. It's time we got to work.'

'Of course,' Nikola said, and then the two sorcerers turned to look at Dave, who gulped at the sight of the two almost identical predatory smiles coming his way.

'Oh, _crap_.'


End file.
